LAHORE: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Army completed the semi-final quartet of the 61st National Hockey Championships in Sialkot with victories on Thursday.

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Wapda had advanced to the last four on Wednesday. PIA will face NBP on Saturday for a place in the final with Wapda and Army clashing in the other semi-final.

PIA advanced after a tense penalty shootout win against Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) after they were locked at 1-1 at the end of regulation time.

SSGC took the lead in the 15th minute when Abbas Haider converted a penalty corner and although PIA were wasteful with the five penalty corners they earned, Mohammad Zubair finally cashed in on a short corner in the 56th to take the match to a shootout.

PIA then netted two of their penalties with SSGC failing to convert four of their attempts to seal a 3-1 win.

There was also a late goal in the other quarter-final where Army edged Punjab 2-1 with Kashif Ali scoring three minutes from time after Faizan’s penalty stroke conversion in the 51st had cancelled out Mohammad Imran’s 12th-minute opener for Army.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2015

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